Smashing Pumpkins

In my opinion, the Smashing Pumkins are anything but crap. They are one of the only bands that I feel have successfully mass-marketed what I think is good music. Even if they hadn't blown up and had just stayed in Chicago, I think their performance and their music was almost set up to be on a major label. This fact alone might qualify them as "crap" for some, but I think that just because something is popular, it is not always wrong. Just remember, Husker Du always said "getting popular is not the same as selling out".

However, I feel I need to give some sort of props for their drummer Jimmy Chamberlain, because he was really good. Yeah, so he came off like a jerk in interviews, and he was in a crappy band, but the guy could play. Some of the single-stroke rolls on "gish" are the only reason I've kept my copy of that cassette all these years. Really, really nice.

At one point in time, Gish was an album that could not be beat. The preceeding singles, and the 4 song thingy that came after never escaped the fact that BC was (is) a whiny nasal singer. This made a very nice square with Skunk's Laid, Walt Mink's Miss Happiness and Monster Magnet's Spine of God.

The balance and excecution was much better on Gish than on subsequent recordings. In fact, Gish was the reason that if you had heard/liked Nirvana pre-1991, you were excited - "No shit, Nirvana's recording with Vig? That shit's gonna be huge!" Ahem. Of course we are all older and wiser now, and on Vig's second record with the SP, and forward on all that followed, you could actually hear all the digital processing and compression.

But nothing changes the fact that Chamberlin is a monster, and Corgan is a good guitar player. Can't help the fact that he uses his powers for evil. And even though I liked that Disarm song once in the context of the record, it remains a top example of an overblown egocentric piece of shit.

Gosh, I guess I really do dislike them now. One CD comp of early stuff still plays nicely on a loud stereo, but aside from that,

Man...that one takes me back. I never thought I could laugh so hard whilst being rocked just as hard (the "jazz cigarettes" certainly helped this, I'm sure). Every classic metal cliche executed with such love and tenderness - pure gold!

Back to the SP's though - Pure smooth brown, stinking, corn-speckled CRAP!

Yeah, B.C.'s whine just annoys me. I am instantly angry when I hear it. I hate the way he slowly blinks his eyes in videos. I talked to James ages ago, a couple of times way back before the band was big; he seemed pretty cool. Still, it's Billy's crap band.

"The killer in me is the killer in you." Fuck off.
"Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage." Again, fuck off.

They were my favorite band when I was in elementary school, so I feel a bit of nostalgia whenever I listen to their records. They were the first band I really got into as a kid, so even if I didn't still like their music I would vote not crap regardless.

Gish - Not Crap
Siamese Dream - Not Crap, no fucking way.
Mellon Collie - Not Crap with a stack of waffles. Why the shit would anyone record, like, "We Only Come Out At Night"? What the fuck, seriously?
Adore - Crap
Machina - MASSIVE CRAP MY GOD WHAT HAPPENED
Machina II - Not Crap! Was Corgan fucking conspiring to ruin his career or something? Why didn't they release this shit! If you've heard the songs they didn't record with Zwan, too, you wonder why the hell they recorded a lot of the stuff they did. Corgan must have had a fucking aneurysm or something, I don't know. The point is, I cut out all the shitty stuff on Machina II, and it fits on one disc and is actually pretty fucking awesome.

Jimmy Chamberlain - Not Crap. Oh man.

Billy Corgan's voice - Crap, BUT the fact that his voice was so fucking screechy actually kept down the melodrama. Imagine him with a classically trained voice, complete with vibrato and well formed vowels? Hair metal cheese, instantly!

I have listened to Pisces Escariot just shortly before selling, and I shall admit, she bring me pain! Pain and happy. Ah, the sweet bird of youth! This record, she remind me of the summer when I was a young mattw. Again, too, I hear Siamese Dream recently- I hear 'Rocket' and think, too, Smashing Pumpkin were good.

Maybe Mellon Collie is when Billy's pumpkin head got too big for his body, but didn't he play most of what Siamese Dream?